Tea Party, Grassroots, and Party Politics…

The Republican Party is aggressively courting the members of the Tea Party groups, 9/12 members and the many liberty based groups that have grown in number due to their frustration with the Republican Party and politicians in general. Many of the members in these groups are frustrated republicans that want their party back. Back to the principles many believed were the platform they signed on to support. Republicans are not the only people that are frustrated, there are many people that are new to the process and they want the current government intrusion into their lives stopped. These people are very worried about their children’s future, as well as their own. They represent a significant part of these grass roots efforts.

There is no general statement you can make about any of these group members because if you dig into the reasons people have joined there is a diverse pool of ideas and priorities. The common threads I have heard are; fiscal responsibility, founding principles, which is another way of saying constitutional government, and common sense. There seems to be little sense at all in government, never mind common sense. But these groups know that the system is fundamentally broken.

My campaign is about getting back to our founding principles and I am no different than many of the people that have chosen to get involved in all of these groups; I have just chosen to go toe to toe with the politicians promising another round of, well, promises. I would never question any of the wonderful people getting involved in these groups to show “credentials” for becoming politically active. So why would people question ordinary citizens like myself about why I “qualify” or what “experience” I have to be Governor? Has government been so efficient that we can’t try someone who doesn’t spend his day distributing taxpayer money, instead spends his day creating and nurturing business? Are we going to continue to support “experienced” politicians that are responsible for this mess?

There are a couple of qualifications that most elected offices require; proper age, and citizen status. I exceed the age by many years and I am a citizen. What I am discovering and what is really apparent is that the questions come mostly from Republican Party members focused on one thing, winning back “their” power. They have this notion that there is a proper protocol to become a candidate and if you don’t start at the bottom and work your way through their ranks, you are not worthy. I can understand their determination to win back power, but they need to understand they have had power before and people are upset with the way they utilized it. I was in the Republican Party for over 15 years and I believe that the reform has to come from the hard lessons an election can teach entrenched politicians. If we elect a Republican we must do it not because of the party but because of the candidate.

I believe it will be important to beat the Democrats this year, not because the candidate is a democrat, but because democrats mostly believe the government is the answer, and I also don’t believe the Republicans should be handed a victory because they are not democrats. The Tea Party, 9/12, and liberty groups have really stirred the political “pot” this year by taking away control of the election process from the two parties. Maybe it is time to send a strong message that we are not only going to take away the process; we will choose the candidate based on ideas and not on the letter next to their name…